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About three years ago, what amounts to a very informal census of the city’s homeless – those without shelter – counted 259 people, with 135 of them being deemed the most vulnerable for harm if they remained homeless.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell says the political forces that defeated the Insure Tennessee proposal of Gov. Bill Haslam this month in Nashville weren’t in a fight with Washington and President Barack Obama

Shelby County commission chairman Justin Ford is running for Memphis Mayor in 2015.

Ford announced his intention to challenge Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. Monday, Feb. 9, joining former county commissioner James Harvey, city council member Jim Strickland, and former University of Memphis basketball player Detric Golden in the growing field.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam opened his State of the State address Monday, Feb. 9, where the special legislative session on Insure Tennessee ended last week – the defeat in committee of his Medicaid expansion proposal.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam opened his State of the State address Monday, Feb. 9, where the special legislative session on Insure Tennessee ended last week – the defeat in committee of his Medicaid expansion proposal.

Nashville is a more turbulent place than usual these days, especially Capitol Hill. So Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. and his administration probably won’t tempt the turbulence there by taking their plan for a Tourism Development Zone to finance a Mid-South Fairgrounds renovation to the Tennessee Building Commission later this month.

The momentum that killed the Insure Tennessee proposal and ended the special session of the Tennessee legislature Wednesday, Feb. 4, was fueled by ideological opposition to the Affordable Care Act and President Barack Obama.

Two hours before the state Senate committee vote in Nashville that signaled the death of Gov. Bill Haslam’s Medicaid expansion proposal, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell said failure to pass the expansion could mean a county property tax hike to fund Shelby County’s public safety net hospital.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell urged Tennessee legislators Wednesday, Feb. 4, to approve the proposed Insure Tennessee Medicaid expansion as the Legislature continues its special session in Nashville on the issue.

It’s not on the Monday, Jan. 26, agenda of the Shelby County Commission, but commissioners are watching the political dominoes that are lining up en route to some kind of move by the city of Memphis toward a Fairgrounds Tourism Development Zone.

The deal to win Shelby County government’s backing of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton’s plan for a Fairgrounds Tourism Development Zone is getting more complex.

The latest version outlined Tuesday, Jan. 20, at City Hall still includes a city guarantee to make up any sales tax revenue that would normally go to fund local public schools that might be lost to financing the reconfiguration of the Fairgrounds.

Jack Soden, the head of Elvis Presley Enterprises, looked out at a crowd on the front lawn of Graceland last week in single-digit temperatures and talked about the durability of Elvis Presley’s appeal.

With Memphis elections on the horizon in another election year, Rotarians are about to begin the process of selecting new winners of the Bobby Dunavant Public Servant Awards.

The 12th annual awards that go to one local elected official and one local non-elected public official are a way of not only honoring the late Shelby County Probate Court clerk but also fostering a broader discussion about the nature of public service and specifically local public service.

It was late September, and local officials were deeply engaged with retail giant Target as the company explored investing in an online fulfillment center in Memphis when the discussions turned toward a familiar subject.

In Inked, we like to highlight local real estate transactions and the often-interesting companies leasing or buying commercial real estate space in the Memphis market. We also like to keep you informed about major deals before they happen and track companies that are critical to the local economy. Here are some important items that appeared in Inked in 2014.

There was a lot of moving around in Shelby County government in 2014, much of it the literal kind as the Vasco Smith County Administration Building was remodeled.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell got new offices in the renovation and the Shelby County Commission chambers got an upgrade as well with the commission offices and committee room moving from the fourth floor to the sixth floor.

The end of the year hastens a season of resolutions about the year ahead, resolutions about what to include on the blank canvas of a new year.

No matter who you are, the road to 2015 starts at the same place – through the experience of 2014. With that in mind, we surveyed many of the people we’ve covered in these pages in the last year to talk about the possibilities ahead.

Through September, things were looking somewhat bleak for Memphis and Shelby County on the economic development front.

At that point in the year the city and county were on pace to tie a record low for the number of payments-in-lieu-of-taxes, or PILOT, agreements granted to companies in a year. While granting fewer tax incentives could be viewed as good news because companies were more fiscally sound or confident about operating in Memphis and Shelby County, the lower level of activity represented a dip in the level of economic investment in the area.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. will ask the Memphis City Council to approve the approximately $30 million in city funding at the core of the settlement of the six-year-old schools funding controversy and lawsuit.

At 7.7 miles, it takes about 12 minutes to make the drive between the Mid-South Fairgrounds and Graceland.

However, the political fortunes of each couldn’t be more different.

A financing plan for a long-delayed expansion of the Graceland campus to develop all 120 acres owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises and amassed since the mid-1990s cleared the Shelby County Commission this week and the Memphis City Council a week before.

Memphis is poised to land hundreds of new jobs and retain several hundred more. Target will seek incentives from Memphis and Shelby County as early as next week for an online fulfillment center that will create over 400 new jobs.

Elvis Presley Enterprises attempted to secure private financing of its plan for a 450-room resort hotel and a remake of its plaza area, but those attempts failed, said Graceland’s bond counsel, because it is difficult for borrowers to get conventional financing for a hotel project.

Shelby County Commissioners approved the Graceland economic impact plan Monday, Dec. 8, the last local hurdle for a plan that includes the construction of a 450-room hotel and a later phase transforming the Graceland Plaza area across Elvis Presley Boulevard from the Graceland mansion.

Shelby County Commissioners are scheduled to vote Monday, Dec. 8, on a contract with city government that is critical to the city advancing its long-held plans for a renovation of the Mid-South Fairgrounds.

Shelby County Commissioner Steve Basar says the commission likely will consider linking an endorsement of the city’s plans for Mid-South Fairgrounds renovation to school funding when it takes up the measure at the Monday, Dec. 8, commission meeting.

Moving the needle on minority business growth in Memphis is in a phase of knitting and prodding six months after a renewed call for a larger share of business for minority businesses in a city whose population is majority African-American.

At the end of the Shelby County Democratic Party’s annual Kennedy Day fundraiser in January, former Memphis City Council member and state Rep. Carol Chumney, who was not among the speakers, challenged the party establishment from her table to do more to support women running for office.

City of Memphis human resources director Quintin Robinson came from City Hall on the other side of the Main Street Mall last week to watch how Shelby County government handled changes to its health insurance plan for employees.

Shelby County Commissioners approved changes to county government employee health insurance coverage Thursday, Oct. 30, that raises employee premiums by 5 percent and drops working spouses who are offered equivalent coverage of the county’s bronze plan by their employers effective Jan. 1.

Shelby County Commissioners may not hear a whole lot new in the way of answers between now and a Thursday special meeting to settle the politically volatile issue of changes to health insurance coverage for county government employees.

Shelby County Commissioners moved a critical vote on changing health insurance benefits for county employees to a special Thursday, Oct. 30, meeting in a Monday session dominated by the proposed changes.

Until a spate of activity this month, Memphis and Shelby County were on pace to tie a record-low for the number of payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements granted to companies in a year.

Through September, the city-county Economic Development Growth Engine, the primary business incentive body in Memphis and Shelby County, had awarded just four PILOTs, tied with 2006 for the lowest amount of PILOTs issued in a year since 2002.

With less than two weeks to the open enrollment period for county employees, Shelby County Commissioners take a look at changes to county employee health care benefits Wednesday, Oct. 22, in committee sessions.

Shelby County Commissioners began the process of issuing $120 million in construction bonds Monday, Sept. 22, approving the initial resolution for the general obligation bonds including ones for school construction.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam swore in a new Tennessee Supreme Court justice and two state Appeals Court judges during a busy Friday, Sept. 19, visit to Memphis that also included getting a flu shot.

Haslam swore in Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Holly Kirby of Memphis at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law before a group of 300 people that included former Gov. Don Sundquist, who appointed Kirby to the court of appeals during his two terms as governor.

Shelby County Commissioners vote Monday, Sept. 22, on a resolution that is the first step in issuing $120 million in general obligation bonds over the next two years to finance “public works projects, including schools,” according to the resolution.

Cargill Inc. will close its Memphis corn mill in January, a move that will impact 440 employees.

The company said the closure of the facility resulted from the underutilization of the Memphis plant on Presidents Island and its location far away from the Corn Belt. The nearby corn oil refinery that employs 28 people will remain open and operate as a standalone facility, Cargill said.

In the first voting meeting of the new four-year term of office, the Shelby County Commission approved Monday, Sept. 8, County Mayor Mark Luttrell’s reappointment of Harvey Kennedy as chief administrative officer, Mike Swift as finance director, Yvonne Matlock as health services director, John Halbert as chief information officer, Tom Needham as public works director and Richard Copeland as director of the city-county Office of Planning and Development. The commission also approved William Gupton as the new director of the county’s corrections division.

In the first voting meeting of the new four-year term of office, the Shelby County Commission approved Monday, Sept. 8, County Mayor Mark Luttrell’s reappointment of Harvey Kennedy as chief administrative officer, Mike Swift as finance director, Yvonne Matlock as health services director, John Halbert as chief information officer, Tom Needham as public works director and Richard Copeland as director of the city-county Office of Planning and Development. The commission also approved William Gupton as the new director of the county’s corrections division.

Shelby County Commissioners hold their first committee sessions Wednesday, Sept. 4, in advance of their first voting meeting Sept. 8.

In addition to committee recommendations on tax delinquent property sales, the commissioners will get briefings on the Downtown Memphis Commission, Greater Memphis Chamber, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau and Economic Development Growth Engine. The committee sessions from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. also include a discussion about who will be chairman of the commission, which includes six new members, and second-term division director appointments by Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell.

After several conflicting announcements, 12 of the 13 Shelby County Commissioners will take the oath of office Thursday, Aug. 28, at 4:30 p.m. at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, 255 N. Main St.

The Shelby County Election Commission certified the August election results Monday, Aug. 25, at the beginning of a week that includes an early oath of office for those elected to county offices on the ballot.

The last phase of the state’s delayed rollout of achievement test scores came and went this week with a blur of percentages for hundreds of schools in Shelby County and explanations of success formulas for elementary and middle school students versus high school students.

Memphis and Shelby County are preparing to fight a border battle with Mississippi to keep hundreds of jobs inside the city.

The state of Mississippi is aggressively courting diesel engine manufacturer Cummins Inc. to move most of its Memphis operations south of the state line to DeSoto County, according to sources familiar with the effort.

Democrats have retained their seven-vote majority on the new single-district Shelby County Commission that takes office Sept. 1.

That and the re-election victory of Democratic incumbent Cheyenne Johnson in the race for Shelby County Assessor of Property were the only bright spots for a divided local Democratic Party that lost every other countywide partisan elected position to Republicans in the Aug. 7 county general election, just as they lost every countywide position to Republicans four years earlier.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam told a group of several hundred Republicans in Bartlett Monday, Aug. 4, that he would like to see a statewide turnout in the August Republican primaries of 750,000.

Haslam and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander have been on a statewide bus tour since last week to pump up overall Republican turnout even as they face opposition in the GOP primaries for governor and the U.S. Senate. The goal is to also boost the turnout for Republican candidates in local general election races on the ballot.

It could have been an election about the local criminal justice system. The set of once-every-eight-years judicial races was the perfect frame for competitive races for district attorney general and juvenile court judge as the main events.

Shelby County medical device manufacturers are known for their innovation. But it took about three years of meetings before officially forming the Greater Memphis Medical Device Council this July.

“The industry was not used to coming together and sitting down,” said Bartlett Area Chamber of Commerce president John Threadgill. “They’re competitors. And to get competitors in the same room to talk about their issues, there’s some reluctance. But the fact is, they’re all having the same issues. The cat’s out of the bag.”

B.I.G. for Memphis, a business interest group that connects Memphis Police colonels and business leaders, will meet Wednesday, July 30, from 9:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Phelps Security, 4932 Park Ave. Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell will present the State of the County. Visit phelpssecurity.com.

When Shelby County’s six new suburban school districts register students on Tuesday, July 29, some of those systems’ superintendents will watch for changes from the numbers of students who pre-registered in the new school systems less than a year ago.

Suburban school leaders drop by the Shelby County Schools data center Monday, July 28, to get their first formal look at achievement test scores for their students during the only year of the Shelby County Schools merger.

DISCRIMINATING TASTE. By all means, discriminate. Refuse to accept some prepackaged deal as the best you can do, some label to be the quality test. In the known, look for proven performance from each individual offering, standing alone, not just part of some group menu. In the unknown, demand fresh and bold, the promise of new and interesting interpretations from old and predictable ingredients.

With two meetings left in their current four-year term, Shelby County commissioners – those going off the body and those remaining – are making final pushes for items on their personal political agendas.

Shelby County Commissioners approved $3 million in county government surplus funds Monday, July 21, from the just-ended fiscal year to fund prekindergarten classrooms in the Shelby County Schools system.

Shelby County Commissioners pick up Monday, July 21, where they left off earlier in the month about a way to fund prekindergarten programs.

The commission faces dueling resolutions, with one setting up further study on an expansion, and the other dedicating $3 million in surplus funds from the just-ended fiscal year and the first $3 million of any surplus from the current fiscal year to Shelby County Schools and the suburban school systems.

Shelby County Schools board members meet Tuesday, July 15, at 5:30 p.m. at the school board auditorium.

The agenda for the voting meeting, which follows the board’s 4 p.m. work session, includes a vote on a $16.7 million contract for Porter-Leath to manage 12 Head Start sites for the school system in the 2014-2015 school year.

The Shelby County Commission approved a $4.37 Shelby County property tax rate Monday, July 7, for the fiscal year that began July 1. The rate is 1 cent lower than the $4.38 rate the commission approved a year ago this month for the just-ended fiscal year.

The Shelby County Commission approved a $4.37 Shelby County property tax rate Monday, July 7, for the fiscal year that began July 1. The rate is 1 cent lower than the $4.38 rate the commission approved a year ago this month for the just-ended fiscal year.

Shelby County Commissioners agreed Monday, to make their own determination about the residency of commissioner Henri Brooks probably toward the end of July in a proceeding that one commissioner described as a “question and answer session.”

More funding from Shelby County government for prekindergarten classrooms is a matter of timing, say those on both sides of the property tax rate question on which the $2.8 million in additional funding hinges.